Expansion-compensating railway.



1. MOORE & R. THORNTON.

EXPANSION COMPENSATING RAILWAY,

" Patented Apr. 11,1916.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 6, 1915.

I; F-6PPHOXIM0TEF l-MILE an /2 MILE k E V skilled in the art to which it appertains to rails, 3 being sprungoutwardly and disposed in sliding UNITED s A'rEsJrAT orrron.

j JOHN MOORE A D RICHARD THoRNToN, or MOUNTAIN rRoN, MINNESOTA.

EXPANSION-COMPENSATING- RAILWAY.

Application filed May 6, 1915.

To all whom it may concern v 7 Be it known that we, JOHN Moons and 1 RICHARD 'THoRNToN,

citizens of the United States, residing at Mountain Iron, injthe the invention, such as will enable others make and use the same.

Our invention relates broadly to improvements in the construction of railways and means which more particularly to compensating means for the expansion and contraction of the rails thereof.

Heretofore, numerous types of rail joints have been provided so constructed as to allow the ends of the rails to slide to a certain extent' therein in rails to expand and contract under changes in temperature. Numerous experiments along this line, however, expansion and contraction, compensating will positively perform the functions for which it is designed, it having been found that all of the devices heretofore manufactured and tested for this purpose, possess certain features which render 'the'm either totally or partially ineffective, with the result that most railways are now built in substantially the same manner as they were constructed years ago.

It is therefore the object to positively overcome I simple and inexpensive construction.

To this end, the tain novel features the unique combination of parts hereinafter fully describedand claimed and shown in the accompanying drawing wherein like refdesignate corresponding parts throughout the several views and of our invention wherein Figure. 1 is a longitudinal section of a. portion of a railway ance with our invention; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the parts seen in Fig. 1, the positions which the rails assume when expanded, in dotted lines; and Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section as seen on the plane indicated by the line 33 of Fig.- 2. Fig. 4 is a diagramof a railway constructed in accordance with our invention.

In this drawing which constitutes a part Specification ofLetters Patent.

beveled as seen at 2 county of St. Louis and State ofMinnesota, p

order to allow said have not revealed the difficulties by of the rails 3. It is within the alined invention resides 1n cer- I slidably poof construction and in V of the plates constructed in accord- Serial No. 26,353.

a railway rail which is provided with a rectilinear inner side, while itsouter side is from its intermediate ortion to vanishing thicknesses at its ends, the rail 1 being of substantially the length of the other rails of the track.

Having their body portions alining with the central portion of the rail 1, are the two longitudinally alined and spaced rails 3, the

Patented Apr. 11,191

thev application, the numeral 1 designates inner, sides of the adjacent ends of these a Y which the same are connected by the usual fish plates or the like,

expand or the adjacent ends of said rails 3 merely slide toward or awayfrom each other upon the beveled portions, 2 of the rail 1, it-being thereforeevident that expansion causedby high temperatures, will not buckle the rails, while contraction encyto snap the bolts at the joints or to break the fish plates.

thereof will have no tend contract, I

It becomes expedlent however, to provide-- 7 simple and efiicient means whereby the inner .sides of the rails land 3 are at all times .maintained in strict. alinement. For this purpose, a plurality of rail chairs 4 are provided, said chairs being secured by spikes or.

.the like 5 to the cross ties 6. The chairs 4: include. horizontal base plates 7 through which the spikes 5 pass, said plates being provided with longitudinally alined depressions 7 of the width and depth of the bases y depressions 7 that said rails 3 are sitioned, with the innermost base flanges thereof disposed flush with the upper sides flanges 7 b which are formed integrally with the plates 7 and which contact snugly with the upper sides ofthe outer base flanges of the rails 3 and with the-outer sides of said rails. The mill rests partially upon the inner base flanges of the] rails 3 and partially upon the upper side of the plates flush with the upper sides of said base flanges, said rail 1 being held in this position by additional angular bracing flanges 8 which are formed integrally with thebase plates 7 and which snugly contact with the inner side of said rail.

7 the rails in question being effectively braced by the angular bracing Due to the fact that the beveled surfaces at the opposite ends of the rail 1 contact with the outwardly deflected ends of the rails 3, shifting of said rail 1 within the chairs is prevented, whereas the rails 3 are allowed to slide freely toward each other upon expansion and to recede one from the other when contraction takes place. It is to be understood that the adjacent ends of the rails 3 are not positively bent outwardly, but that they into contact with the outer sides of the rail 1, it being therefore evident that they will be swung still farther outwardly upon expansion, while they will straighten when contraction takes place. Thus it will be seen that the inner sides of the rails 3 Will aline at all times with the inner sides of the rail 1. Needless to say, this effect could not be obtained were the rails 3 positively bent. In constructing a railway, the expansion compensating means above described are disposed at suitably spaced intervals throughout the length of both rails as indicated in diagram in Fig. 4. In this figure T designates the track which is composed of the usual rails secured rigidly together at J for stretches approximately a mile or a half mile long. At the ends of such stretches, however, the expansion compensating means designated at E is disposed, it being thus evident that the track is divided into a plurality of independently movable units each of which is capable of expanding and contracting the necessary amount without any danger whatsoever of buckling the rails or producing other injurious effects. Particular emphasis is laid upon the fact that when constructing a. railway as described, the ends of the rails may abut closely as indicated in Fig. and may be secured together in such a manner as to orevent them from recedin from each other, this being highly expedient since no gaps will then prevail at the joints. By the elimination of such gaps, pounding of the car wheels in traveling over the railway is prevented, thus not only de creasing the sound usually caused by the passage of a train over the track but preventing the ends of the several rails from becoming rounded as often occurs. Em-

phasis is also laid upon the fact that at the Y several points E, pounding is likewise prevented smce the upper edges of the rails 1 are merely sprung outwardly 1 lie flush with the rails 3 and the car wheels run gradually from one to the other, there being no fixed point at which the wheels leave one rail and roll upon the other.

In addition to the preceding description and explanation, it may be well to state that the expansion compensating devices would be particularly valuable when placed in the vicinity of diamond track crossings to prevent their being forced out of alinement by contraction or'expansion of adjoining rails, as much trouble is now encountered in keep ing such crossings in proper shape.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be evident that although very simple and inexpensive construction has been provided for the attainment of the die sired end, the invention will be highly efii cient in operation and will fulfil a long felt need.

e claim I In combination, a plurality of alined anchored base plates having alined depressions in their upper sides of the width and depth of the base of a rail, a pair of spaced alined rails having their bases disposed slidably in the depressions with their innermost base flanges flush with the tops of the base plates, and having their adjacent ends sprung outwardly, angular bracing flanges formed integrally with the base plates and contact ing snugly with the outer sides of the rails, a third rail resting partially on the inner base flanges of the pair of rails and partially on the upper sides of the base plates flush with said base flanges, said third rail having its end portions beveled to vanishing thicknesses at its ends proper with the bevels disposed in contact with the inner sides of the pair of rails, and additional angular bracing flanges formed integrally with the base plates at points spaced from the depressions and contacting closely with the inner side of the third rail.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN MOORE. RICHARD THORNTON. Witnesses:

OTTO A. POIRIER, OHAs. C. 001). 

